Have you ever come across a company or business and decided to use a search engine to look them up? You probably have. Isn’t it a bit weird if the business doesn’t come up? The feeling actually blows me away, and I can hardly fathom a business not showing up on the first page of Google.

What Happens When You Google Your Name?

My father has his own business, but no website and such because his line of work is a bit different. I want to change that sometime and see if I can set up his own domain and site. I bet he could offer up a lot of tips and knowledge on sales, traveling sales within a certain area, car buying tips if you are a sales person, how to install a ceiling fan with a remote, etc. Seriously the list goes on. However, even when I search his business name, I get him on the first page of Google in the form of information from one of the lighting companies he sells for. If he had a website/blog and his own domain, he’d easily rank 1.

In my day job, I see a lot of business banking customer profiles. I will sometimes google the business name just to see if anything comes up. It’s amazing how often I cannot get any details. Pretty scary if you’re thinking of doing some business with this person or company. Have you ever searched for a company and the only thing your found was a website that discusses only complaints or fraud? That’s even crazier. As if the only information you find is about people discussing the legitimacy of a business! In this day and age, that’s not  acceptable and it’s going to hurt if you’re not found when people search for you online. With respects to a photography business, you’re probably going to get some type of hits because you’ve got to be posting your photos somewhere already. But where are you posting them is my main question and how are people able to view them.   If someone lost your business card, how easily could they find you again?

You’ve probably already heard about hiring companies doing Google Searches on potential employees they are about to hire. Usually a quick search of the persons first and last name, with the city they live in and you should find something. Gone are the days that the internet was your place to jerk around and be rude. No one could see who you were and it was very anonymous. It can still be very anonymous online; however, if I do a search of someone and the first result Google finds for me is a page of you doing something kinda gross, how does that look? I could laugh at it and not care, because I’m pretty laid back. Actually I am very laid back.  Someone else may be turned off.

Set Yourself Up Long Before Your Next Interview

With your own domain, you’re thinking outside the box than probably 95% of your potential competitors for a job.  I don’ t even care what your line of business is right now, and this has nothing to do with just photography.  Your business could be a photographer and you’re looking to build your client list, or you could be a customer service representative wanting to move up and be a team manager – it doesn’t matter.  You can relate your own blog and website to anything and show people why you stand out.

What is your next move? What are your goals? What are your passions?   I’m going to explain a bit of a story to you that relates to my current job.  It will illustrate what I would do if I still wanted to run the corporate ladder and show why I deserve the job more than anyone else.

If you’re in a job that your trying to move up in, start building your online presence now.  In the 21st Century, you’re going to need this ability and you might as well take the steps today to stand out.  The cool thing about this is that you might not even care about how well your website ranks in Google.  Although, I am pretty sure most people will start to realize how many more people you can potentially touch in a global environment versus a company intranet.  Anyways, if I was pushing myself for the next role in my career, I would start a blog.  Plain and simple, it’s important.

What can a blog do for me?

• You have your own domain – anyone could find you and look to hire you
• Related to the other point, if you rank #1 You own the number one ranking for your name.
• You can start to apply bits and pieces of knowledge that would look great for the next role
• You show strong initiative and self-motivation.  It’s not just a word on your Resume anymore.
• You have something kickass to talk about in your interview.
• You’re going the extra mile. You can discuss your own Ideas and talk about your own awesome successes in your role
• If you forget something in the interview, the person may browse your site and see much more anyways
• Your branding and marketing yourself or business
• You can do this over and over and over again.
• You can also take your domain and site in whatever direction your want.
• Social Media sites will come and go, however you’re domain will stick and you can add it to the next big social media wave.

The awesomeness of your own blog and domain go on.  So, in my work, a lot of people want to be Team Managers.  I want to be an entrepreneur. Everyday this feeling is growing and being my own business trumps anything. But, let’s say I wanted to be a team manager and I started a blog to increase my chances of getting the next job posting.

To illustrate a way to use a blog to get your next job, I am going to pretend I can time travel back 2 years.

Time Traveling To Illustrate the Potential Power of Blogging

*Insert some cool time traveling music*

We’re now in 2007 and I want to be a Team Manager.  Everyone wants to be a team manager! The competition is tough when you have a lot of people that want the 1 available position.  You have to follow the slow steps up the ladder.  It’s like a mini ladder within a ladder.  There are a few things that occur, and I rarely see anyone do anything extraordinary.  Extraordinary takes way too much time in a large corporation.  So, why not take the extraordinary on yourself and be remarkable for a change.  I could do all the same things the other competition are doing and have the fate rest in the hands of the butts I tried to kiss or left to the politics of the office.   I am not one to kiss butt, or get involved with office politics.  What I would look to do is set up a blog and the domain would be my own name (or some way to distinguish my name).  I currently have my portrait photography website ( www.scottrwebb.com )  that I am trying to build up and achieve a few portrait sessions a month. Since we are actually 2 years in the past though, the site would be for my path and journey to becoming a team manager or a coach.  This is where it might get interesting.

In this blog about becoming a Team Manager, I would explore the important accountabilities of that role and build my blog around them.   I would not talk about specifics about the company I work for or employees; however, I would talk about motivating people, managing absenteeism, ways to promote positive behavior, or different angles to approach people in your line of business.   While you’re writing about this type of subject, you’re learning and brainstorming ways to do the team manager role.  You’re being creative and showing that you can write, take the initiative to continuous learning, and show your motivation for achieving outstanding results by watching the metrics of your blog.

Wow! Suddenly the blog makes a bit of sense? Suddenly that person that’s writing up the same thing that the past 10 applicants did on the night before the interview looks a little less passionate about the role and career.  Atleast that’s how I approach it.

*Insert modern cool time traveling music*

We’re back to 2009.  So what do I find interesting about this scenario? The part that is interesting about this new blog you would have created on motivation, inspiration, and positive behavior, could actually take you into a whole new direction as well.  There are a great number of self-development bloggers doing incredible things for people and they are working from home, or halfway around the world.  You have the ability to work for yourself and coach people towards many more goals that bring true meaning to their lives.  You can even set your own metrics.  You might even feel a million times better about yourself as you help people achieve their true dreams and make the world a better place overall.

The outrageous fun starts when you think about the fact that you don’t have to relate this just to your current job.  You could start a domain that does that though and start another domain to work on your other side passion that revolves around picnic basket design.  Eventually, since you love picnic basket design the most, you are using your time fully to pursue that interest more than anything.  This is the power of your own domain and building online presence.  You have the ability to do what you seriously love and wish you were doing while you’re at work.   ****I have an amazing t-shirt design I thought of today that I know people will love and I plan to have it available for a contest and in my nuwomb store in the future.

Normally I would just talk about how this relates to photography and starting your business within that industry; however, I feel this could be used for so many more amazing ways to enhance your contribution to the world.  I actually posted on this topic earlier that asked people to take action and stop thinking about starting a blog.

Photography Business Point of View

Most photographers that I have come across online have set up some type of blog.  I could argue that Flickr is not a blog, but I don’t want to argue. It could be considered one.  Photographers want to sell their photographs and/or want to build a solid client base to do portraits, events and anything for them.  The photographer or aspiring photographer, could set up a nice looking flash gallery or portfolio website with Smugmug (Check out Trial), Zenfolio (elegant photo hosting) or Photoshelter and have a great looking place on the web. Without a blog, to communicate your personality, your interests, and your passion for the work you do, you’re work is very very static.  My Zenfolio site gets little traffic.  It’s been around for a long time now, and I’ve added keywords, enhanced the urls and done all the little SEO tricks along the way with it (as much as I have the ability to do).  Still very little if traffic.

A blog is constantly being updated, showing who you are, indexing and allowing your 100% control of your optimization.  You have created your site from scratch to reflect you and your photo business to a tee. Correct me if I am wrong, but people appreciate that attention to detail and they may choose a photographer based on the way they come across in their blog.  If you’ve read or listened to Fast Track Photographer by Dane Sanders, you’ll remember that you need to stand out some how and some way beyond just your photographs.   I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Jasmine Star is one of the best for this type of thing.  Show how much fun you love to have and shoot portraits, people will be drawn to you instead of mr. mcgrumps.

There are so many aspects of any business or industry that can be discussed and enhanced and you have that chance.  Blogging isn’t new, yet so many people (the % has to be very high) don’t have an idea what a blog does or is today.  I know a girl that recently started her blog and photography website because her Facebook Group was not cutting it.  No freedom in design, little photographs, photographs usually get degraded by Facebook somehow and the comments were just bland.  You step into another realm and vibration by expanding your horizons and going global.   A dream I am consistently thinking of and visualizing is traveling the world and shooting exotic places, coming home and doing a gallery exhibit.  However, I don’t even need to come home.   With a virtual studio or gallery (which is going to be my nuwomb store) those images will be able to be bought by anyone in the world.  I am currently working towards that with this blog and other photoblogs.

This article has now run over 2000 words and I should cut this off.  Point is, start considering your own domain so that you can start a blog towards bettering your life and the world.  I am releasing my first product this week to help people take action on this topic.  Sign up for the newsletter because I am sending information out at 11pm tonight with some details about the plan.